Rolex Proposes Expansion in Bulle
Rolex presently employs around 14,000 people worldwide, 9000 of them in Switzerland. The proposed expansion in Bulle, situated in the Swiss canton of Fribourg, is estimated to increase that number by 2000 employees.
The new campus is slated to be finished in 2029. In the interim, Rolex has taken over a Tetrapak factory in Romont to augment production. Once outfitted, the former Tetrapak facility will employ 250-300 people, who will move to the Bulle campus upon its completion.
Linked article in German (English translation).
"General Purpose"
Marathon Watches wrangles collaboration with Jeep.
Both companies have served up military-spec, general-purpose wares for decades. While the tale may be apocryphal, it is said that the name Jeep is derived from the abbreviated shorthand for the general-purpose specification: GP.
Image via Europa Star
Ceralume
An experimental, glow-in-the-dark ceramic from IWC.
While not nearly as robust as zirconium oxide, standard-issue Super-LumiNova is, itself, also a ceramic. The fusion of the two materials is interesting. While I doubt the glow is nearly as strong as pure Super-LumiNova, if the tech progresses well it would be interesting to see it applied to bezel markings, dial indices, and hands.
Image credit IWC
Rexhep Rexhepi Reflects on His Early Career
Logan Baker, reporting for Phillips Auctioneers interviews Rexhep Rexhepi on life before Akrivia, building his brand, and how the debut of his Chronomètre Contemporain changed everything.
The positivity Rexhepi received while showing the first Chronomètre Contemporain prototype during Baselworld was unlike anything he had experienced before. For the first time in his career, his order book was already rapidly filling up with names.
Even with the success of the Chronomètre Contemporain, Rexhepi reveals a persistent inner tension throughout the interview:
I wanted to make a living from this. I wanted to build my life on it. And when you're unable to live because people don't, I don't know, they don't really trust you, or they think that you're too young, or they don't believe in you ... it's really tough. I understand it today, but in those moments, when you really have to eat, it's a different feeling. You have to be strong. You have to be really passionate to not let it get you down. But it does affect you. It all affects you.
I can't be happy with everything I'm doing in life right now. I think I can do so much more today. I know that I want to do more, but I also know that, at this moment, I'm very frustrated.
I go home every day and I can't stop myself from thinking about how I want to be further along. Yeah, I'm frustrated.
I'm very patient, but that doesn't make things any easier. I'm very patient about achieving something, but I won't let myself be happy with what I'm doing right now.
That unsatiated desire for perfection has no doubt helped to fuel the success he has found.
Image via Phillips Auctioneers, LLC
At the Bench With Remy Cools
Independent watchmaker Remy Cools and his first and currently only employee, Clémence Thériat, interviewed by Business Insider in a video that provides an insightful look inside his atelier as well as some of the processes and approaches that he and Thériat apply in crafting the tourbillon wristwatches he designed.
Antoine Simonin Has Passed Away
Co-founder of the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Education Program (WOSTEP) and arguably the world's most pre-eminent publisher and purveyor of horological books, Antoine Simonin has had an indelible and far-reaching impact on the world of horology.
Digital portrait by Jon Edwards, based on a photograph from Editions Simonin
Clarity Over Complication
Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of the Chanel Watchmaking Creation Studio, in conversation with Hervé Borne of Worldtempus:
There’s nothing worse than going round in circles with your so-called DNA and constantly reliving the past. This attitude shows a lack of respect. Freedom of creation was always one of Gabrielle Chanel’s primary values. You can’t dwell on the past; it doesn’t work. Goethe’s phrase: “Make a better future with the expanded elements of the past” is an excellent summary.
CPO Pilot Program Off Course
Rob Corder reporting for WatchPro finds Rolex ADs reticent to fully embrace new Rolex Certified Pre-owned Program.
At the end of the day, retailers sending timepieces serviced by their in-house technicians to be certified by Rolex is an expensive theatric that will only catch the superficial issues Corder noted—like a new crystal, crown, or bracelet.
Rolex slowly cutting off the supply of spare parts to watchmakers for service over the past quarter century while simultaneously increasing the prices they charge for service led to a massive and very lucrative gap that Chinese, Italian, German, and American firms have come to fill. Even with an attentive eye, high magnification, and decades of experience working on the genuine article, it can be difficult to tell bona fide Rolex movement components apart from the more advanced facsimiles flooding the market without using an XRF spectrometer to fingerprint the molecular makeup of the specific alloys each component is composed of.